John McWhorter laments the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue. McWhorter opened himself to predictable criticism by writing a book that is part of the problem rather than the solution:
The book's free-wheeling prose and unorthodox usage — Mr. McWhorter frequently combines a plural subject with a singular verb — has put off at least one critic, Jonathan Yardley in The Washington Post, who ended his review with the words: "Physician, heal thyself."I'm intrigued by the idea of being simultaneously part of the problem and part of the solution, something me and many fellow Christians may be able to identify with.
Yet Mr. McWhorter, who defends his writing style in the book, says it was a deliberate choice on his part. "I wrote the book in a style that channels speech in a way I certainly could not have gotten away with 40 years ago," he admitted. In part, he said, his goal was not to sound like a scold. But his prose is also, he insisted, a reflection of the era in which he was brought up.
"I'm very much a part of this," he said.
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